Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr., is elated that the world’s most popular sport made a safe return here amidst the pandemic.
Sports was shut down since last March but structured, organised football returned with the ‘Bounce Back’ mini-tournament. A four-team, two-day event which culminated on New Year’s Day at the National Stadium.
“I was pleased to be a part of creating history. This is a historic event for several reasons,” said Ramson on the sidelines following the final which saw the GT All-Stars needling the Linden All-Stars one-nil to win the spoils.
“We were able to do this safely during a pandemic and recognizing that this period is a challenge, it forced us to innovate. The second is concerning the quality of football, it was impressive especially when you consider the circumstances.”
He added:“They have been severe because everyone knows who plays a sport, if you don’t have that constant practice, you start losing your touch, the players came out and showed that they are at a good level to be able to progress quickly.”
The match, which was played without spectators, was streamed live on several platforms for the world to see.
“That is something that all Guyanese should feel proud of. The people who watched across the world, they were able to see that Guyana is producing something of a high standard. In doing this also, we were able to provide the platform for a lot of the young talent to get exposure, the exposure that was delivered not just all across the country but further afield.”
The event was a collaborative effort involving the Ministry of Sport, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Kashif and Shanghai (K&S) Organisation.
Ramson Jr., stated that he was happy to forge a strong relationship with the GFF and to see the return of the sports’ premier organizers who had a five-year sabbatical.
“I am happy that the GFF and the Ministry of Sport, on behalf of the Government of Guyana, we have been able to form a strong partnership. A partnership that already sends a signal that we will be able to aggressively advance the programme and the overall responsibility that we are respectively charged with. Also, I am very pleased that the Kashif and Shanghai tournament has returned.”
He continued, “I am very proud to be associated and to be one of the components to make that happen because anyone who has been following football in Guyana, they know that their tournament was the most successful tournament in the country and quite possibly the region.
The minister made the point that quite a lot of young players used the K&S tournaments as a vehicle to advance their careers, locally and internationally.
“Advancing their livelihoods, advancing their welfare, advancing their families’ welfare, those are important things when you think about being able to advance a country because when you are placed in a decision-making capacity, you are not only going to look at something in a singular sense, you have to be able to help to create that environment for many people to advance their talent and lives and football is one of them” Ramson concluded.
